Rom Romeha - For Roma, By Roma
In Issue 1 of Greater Govanhill magazine, Marek Balog wrote about an initiative by local organisation, Community Renewal to make sure that Roma people are at the heart of decision making when it comes to their community.
Photo by David Balog
By Marek Balog, project leader at Community Renewal
Translations into Slovak by Marek Bolag & Romanian by Roland Den
I once attended a meeting that was being held to discuss issues affecting the Roma community. I was the only Roma person in the room. Organisations were speaking about us or for us, but not to us. That was when we realised that we needed to take a different approach with the work that we do.
Like so many Roma people, I left the country I was born in because of discrimination experienced back home. In my home country of Slovakia, things are slowly starting to improve, but it will take time. Many Roma are still treated like second class citizens and segregation is common. COVID-19 has only widened these inequalities.
I work for Community Renewal in Govanhill. The organisation began working with the Roma community in 2009, then employing Roma people from 2016 with the ethos ‘supporting you to support yourselves’. To do this, they employ a Roma team of eight people, myself included. For us it’s, so important to have someone who understands Roma culture and what people have been through when they arrive in Glasgow.
At the start of the crisis, we were aware that the Roma community was not receiving safety messages as quickly as everyone else. Roma in Govanhill speak several different languages and dialects, so our first response was to translate the social distancing and stay at home messages into a variety of languages including Romanes, Slovakian and Romanian. We shared these on social media to try and counter misinformation that was spreading.
We have two hubs in Govanhill, and we usually provide a range of support including a community canteen every Thursday. The canteen has been suspended so we have changed tactics. We teamed up first with the Clutha Trust then with Glasgow South East Food Bank to deliver food parcels to local families. Our advice team has been successfully supporting the community to deal with job losses and drops in family income. We have been trying to keep people engaged with English language classes, family activities and community forum meetings.
Like many people across the UK, the Roma population are experiencing job losses and hardship, many having previously worked in industries that have been negatively impacted by the virus.
We were already working alongside the community to enable and empower them towards positive change. Many are working in roles described as key workers and taking part in community activity before lockdown began. We don’t know what the long-term effect of all this will be, but our team of Roma workers will be there to respond to the challenges.
The Roma team at Community Renewal describe our approach as Rom Romeha, meaning For Roma, by Roma” – this was the case before the crisis and will continue long after lockdown ends.
